French school, following models of 1700; XIX century.

French school, following models of 1700; XIX century.
"Portraits of lady".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Present restorations and Repainting.
Measurements: 83 x 68 cm (x2).
Although executed in a later period, these works deliberately recover the visual codes, courtly elegance and ornamental refinement characteristic of French painting around 1700, a time of transition between the late classicism of Louis XIV and the lighter and more sophisticated sensibility that would lead to the Rococo. In this sense, the paintings should not only be understood as individual portraits, but also as manifestations of a historicist taste that was widespread in the 19th century, when artists and collectors rediscovered and reinterpreted the styles of the past.
The genre of the female portrait occupied a central place in the French pictorial tradition from the end of the 17th century. In these works, the figures are depicted with an idealized grace that privileges social elegance over psychological individuality. The faces present softened features, pearly skins and serene expressions, constructed more as embodiments of an ideal of aristocratic beauty than as strictly naturalistic depictions. This tendency responds to the principles of French court portraiture, where painting functioned as a vehicle of prestige, refinement and social representation.
The composition of both portraits shows the influence of French models linked to the environment of painters such as Nicolas de Largillière or Hyacinthe Rigaud, masters of the great aristocratic portrait under the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency. The arrangement of the figures in three quarters, the dark and neutral background and the lighting directed at the face and bust are compositional formulas designed to focus attention on the nobility of bearing and the richness of the clothes. However, as opposed to the solemn monumentality of the full Baroque, here a more intimate and decorative atmosphere prevails, in accordance with the gallant taste that was beginning to develop in France towards the beginning of the 18th century.